The Best Day Ever
by sparrowchords
Summary: Ben gives Leslie work to do over the weekend and gets a much different response from her than he expected. Set early/mid season 3. Slightly fluffy one-shot.


**Author's note: Hi, thanks for reading! This is inspired by Leslie's Holiday Calendar, which NBC put online after the episode in season 6 about all of Leslie's holidays for Ben and Ann. Some of you might have seen it, but anyways, one of Ben's holidays is "Cry Day: This is the first time Leslie ever cried in front of me. Happy tears. I gave her work to do over the weekend." Thus, I decided to write a teeny little story about that.**

 **This takes place pre-Harvest Fest, probably after "Media Blitz" or "Indianapolis". Enough rambling; enjoy!**

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Ben glanced at the small clock in the corner of his computer screen and realized that it was almost 4:30. He'd been so thoroughly engrossed in his spreadsheets that he'd forgotten that it was Friday afternoon and that the weekend was so close. Weekends hadn't exactly thrilled him in years, but he had to admit he was looking forward to this one. He planned on hanging out in his hotel room and re-watching old episodes of _The X-Files_ while eating tremendous amounts of popcorn. He hoped doing so would work up inspiration for the fan fiction he was writing.

He began to straighten up his desk just as he did at the end of every week, placing writing utensils in his pencil cup, pushing stationary objects into even right angles, and filing away loose papers. Just as he had nearly finished, he looked down at a manila file folder that had been buried under a few things. He picked it up and all of a sudden remembered why it was there.

It was full of a few pages of paperwork he needed Leslie to do. He needed it by Monday and he realized that he had completely forgotten to give it to her this week. He sighed deeply. Leslie worked hard enough without having to do so on weekends. Ben got up, beginning to walk towards the Parks office.

It dawned on him that he hadn't seen yet Leslie today, which was a rare thing. Even on days when he wasn't helping the Parks office directly, he often ran into her in the hallway and she'd smile and wave at him, giving him a mood boost that would often last for the rest of the day. He noticed that he was beginning to hope for pieces of Harvest Festival business to come up just so he could talk to her.

But that was immaterial now. He doubted this visit would make anybody very happy.

Strolling into the Parks Department office, Ben noted that it was far quieter than usual. The door to Ron's office was closed as usual, Donna and Jerry were staring blankly at their computer screens, Tom was nowhere to be found, and April's head was slumped over on her desk. He would have asked her if everything was okay, but he knew better by now.

Leslie, however, looked as she always did, pleasantly pouring over accumulated work on her desk, not looking the least bit winded. Ben entered her office quietly and cleared his throat.

She looked up. "Ben, hi!" She said, a smile lighting up her face in a way that made Ben's do the same.

"Hi," he replied. "Uh…why is it so quiet around here?"

"Oh, this is how it always is on Friday afternoons. Pretty much everybody is half-dead. It's horrible trying to get anything done. So, what's up?"

"Leslie, I really hate to do this to you," he began, walking closer to her desk, "but…I kinda need you to finish these for me before Monday." He put the file folder down on the desk in front of her.

For a moment, she stared at it blankly, running her fingers across its surface. Ben watched her curiously, beginning to get worried.

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. Regret and a certain amount of panic began to race through him. "Oh my- Leslie, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

Leslie stood up slowly, wiping away a stray tear with her hands. "I am better than okay." Without warning, she hugged him tightly, and he felt his heart rate pick up. He hoped she wouldn't notice.

"No one has ever given me weekend work before," she said, still crying. "Thank you so, so much."

He was speechless for a moment. All he heard himself utter was, "Oh." After a few seconds he was able to add, "You're…welcome, I guess."

Leslie didn't let go, so he slowly and gently put his arms around her, too. He found, without surprise, that he liked it quite a lot.

Eventually, she released him and went back to her desk, picking up with file folder. "I'll have these for you Monday morning! Maybe before that. Can I stop by your hotel tomorrow? Oh, wait, no, I wanna pace myself. I wanna draw it out as much as I can. I'm just so excited!"

"I'm glad," he said, eyebrows raised.

"Is it all right if I hug you again? Wait, no," she said again. "It's just that this is…this is the best day ever!"

Ben smiled at her, and she smiled back. "Excuse me, Ben, but it's 5:00, and I want to get home as soon as I can so that I can start on this."

"Okay."

He watched as she gathered up her things fast and then faced him once again. "Oh, why not?" she said quickly, giving him another very rapid hug. "Bye, Ben!" She said to him as she sped out of the office.

"Bye, Leslie!" He called back, but he knew she hadn't heard him. He twisted his face to keep himself from smiling after her like an idiot.

That went better than he expected.


End file.
